


By a Thread (The Dots and Dashes Remix)

by Veldeia



Category: Avengers Assemble (Cartoon)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Alternate Universe - Soulmates, Fix-It, Love Confessions, M/M, Morse Code, Oblivious Steve Rogers, Red String of Fate
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-02-22
Updated: 2019-02-22
Packaged: 2019-11-01 20:36:07
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,254
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17874425
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Veldeia/pseuds/Veldeia
Summary: The red string of fate connects lovers across the multiverse, and lets them exchange words that have been waiting to be said for a long time.





	By a Thread (The Dots and Dashes Remix)

**Author's Note:**

  * For [a_salty_alto](https://archiveofourown.org/users/a_salty_alto/gifts).
  * Inspired by [Red String of Fate](https://archiveofourown.org/works/12527612) by [a_salty_alto](https://archiveofourown.org/users/a_salty_alto/pseuds/a_salty_alto). 
  * In response to a prompt by [a_salty_alto](https://archiveofourown.org/users/a_salty_alto/pseuds/a_salty_alto) in the [2019_Cap_Ironman_Remix_Madness](https://archiveofourown.org/collections/2019_Cap_Ironman_Remix_Madness) collection. 



> This is a little remix of [a_salty_alto's](https://archiveofourown.org/users/a_salty_alto/pseuds/a_salty_alto) story [Red String of Fate](https://archiveofourown.org/works/12527612) for [2019 Captain America/Iron Man Remix Madness](https://archiveofourown.org/collections/2019_Cap_Ironman_Remix_Madness/profile). Just like the original story, this takes place during an alternate timeline for Avengers Assemble end of S3/start of S4, when Tony's stuck in the pocket dimension.
> 
> Unbeta'd, apologies for any mistakes.

After leaving Tony alone in the pocket dimension Strange had created, Steve had thought things couldn't possibly get any worse—and then they'd lost the voice connection to him, too. While they'd had it, Steve had at least been able to talk to him, to tell him to hold on and that the Avengers were looking for a way to bring him back, and to be sure that he was still alive. Now, he didn't even know that.

It was the deepest, most devastating silence Steve had experienced, and he would've given anything to hear Tony's voice again, even one word, to know that he was alright.

In the long dark hours of the night, that deafening silence was too much. He couldn't sleep.

He got out of bed, crossed the quiet building to the gym, and started pummeling the punching bag like if he just hit it hard enough, he'd a rip hole in the fabric of the multiverse and bring back the man he loved.

Loved?

The bag, which he'd punched off its chain, hit the floor with a loud thud, but he barely heard it.

He loved Tony.

He felt like he'd known this for some time, but only subconsciously; he'd not really accepted it or acknowledged it or put it into words. Now that he'd realized it, it was a fact, as constant as any law of nature.

In the daze of this realization, it took him a while to notice the strange tight, tingling feeling around his pinky. He raised his hand and slowly uncurled his fingers, first wondering if he'd hurt himself throwing that last, savage punch, but the touch of crimson that he saw on his finger was not blood.

Steve had never dared to even dream of finding his soulmate, certain that if he'd been destined to have one, he'd left them behind when he'd fallen into the ice. He'd never thought he'd see what he was now looking at: a red string so fine that it seemed ethereal, but somehow simultaneously more solid than anything else in the room, one end of it tied around his pinky, the other disappearing into thin air.

His hand still held up in front of his face, staring at it with such amazement and disbelief and joy that he forgot how to breathe, he felt the strange tingling tug at his pinky again.

Tony was there, across the multiverse, tugging at that precious connecting thread. Tony was still alive, and Tony loved him back—but he was still terribly far away, even if he now knew that Steve also loved him. It was relief mixed with sorrow, thinking that he couldn't hold Tony close and tell him how he felt.

Steve tried tugging back, and got a set of insistent pulls in return from Tony's end. It almost felt as if there was a pattern. It took him several long seconds to recognize what it was, and that Tony wasn't just yanking at the thread at random. There were longer and shorter tugs: a code. Morse code, which Steve had memorized during the war.

A new wave of excitement washing over him, Steve pinched the yarn between his fingers, and tugged on his own end of the thread. Two dots, two dashes, two dots, for a question mark; a request for Tony to repeat what he'd been saying, because Steve had missed it.

After a brief pause, Tony started again, and Steve focused as hard as he'd ever focused on anything on interpreting that signal and not missing a single pull of the thread.

It started with a dot-dash-dot-dot for an L, continued with three dashes for O, and when the next set was a dot-dot-dot-dash for V, Steve could guess what the last letter would be. After L-O-V-E, Tony continued with the letter U and the number two.

 _Love you too,_ Tony was messaging.

Steve had already known that, because the thread would only be there if there feelings were mutual, but it still made his heart soar that it was the first thing Tony had chosen to tell him after that awful silence.

It occurred to Steve that the thread had appeared the very second when he had admitted his feelings to himself. It had been his realization that had brought it to existence, and that meant that Tony must've already known. Tony had been in love with him before, and Tony must've thought Steve didn't love him back. Had he been thinking that when they'd said their goodbyes, or had he come to terms with his feelings during the many days he'd spent alone, stranded in the pocket dimension? Steve couldn't decide which was worse.

 _How long?_ he signaled.

 _Years,_ Tony replied.

Steve was stunned. Tony had loved him for years? All that time, and he'd never said anything. Steve thought back to all the time they'd spent together, sharing meals, watching movies, playing games. So many afternoons lounging in the common spaces of the Tower and sparring in the gym. And then there were the countless times they'd fought side by side, seamlessly, saving the world together. He had always enjoyed Tony's company, and he'd always been fond of Tony. Being around Tony had always made his days that little bit brighter and more special.

He had loved Tony for a long time as well, and he had been completely blind to what was right in front of him.

 _Why didn't you say something?_ Steve asked.

Tony had flirted with him, now that he thought of it, but flirting was something Tony did a lot, with everyone around him. Steve had always felt a touch of excitement at it. He'd just never thought it was particularly meaningful.

There was a brief silence on Tony's end before he answered: _Not brave enough._

Steve could guess what Tony meant. He'd been afraid of Steve's rejection, and probably of losing the friendship that they both cherished. But especially now, after Tony had sacrificed everything to make sure that Ultron stayed contained, he wouldn't accept hearing such words from Tony.

 _You are the bravest man I know. I'm sorry it took me so long,_ Steve replied to him, tugging at the yarn in rapid sequence—so fast, in fact, that Tony asked him to slow down. Steve did, but he didn't stop. _I want to hold you in my arms,_ he went on. _I miss you so much, Tony._

There was another pause, probably because Tony waited to be sure Steve was done. When he started messaging again, it wasn't at all what Steve would've expected.

 _Then reel me in,_ Tony said.

At first, Steve wondered if he'd misunderstood the code, because that didn't make any sense. He found himself staring at his extended pinky finger, considering for the first time what a bizarre way of communicating this was, when it struck him what Tony was trying to tell him.

Tony had been lost in the multiverse. Even with all the combined scientific and magical knowledge of the Avengers and their friends, they had't been able to come up with a way of tracing him, but that had now changed. The thread that connected them would span across all that distance, linking them together, and surely, they could use that to locate Tony. That fine filament, spun from the strength of their love, could bring them back together again.

Full of hope and excitement, Steve asked Tony to wait, and rushed out of the gym to call Dr. Foster.


End file.
